'THE CORACLE, THE PALETTE & THE GOLF FLAG': A NEW POEM TO GO WITH KIRSTY ELSON'S ARTWORK...

The Coracle, The Palette & The Golf Flag…

(based on Kirsty Elson’s artwork which is the August image on her 2019 calendar…)

I like the coracle.

I once paddled one.

I leaned forth and dragged the craft

Across a pool at Wellesbourne Mill.

There’s a coracle here, below the sea-wall,

Like a broken walnut on mud

Awaiting an inevitable spill…

The gull to the right takes flight, 

Whilst attic windows like bulbous eyes watch it all

From above, as the flag-buoy leans

Drunk against a dwelling, appalled…

Perhaps it moonlights on a golf course

As a pin marking a hole for a ball

And maybe the artist has used for a palette

A cottage roof and a splurged front door

To create the frugality and utter tranquility

Of a tiny harbour, close to a shore…

Pete Ray

July 2019 

Wellesbourne Mill, south of Stratford-upon-Avon is now a private dwelling, sadly. 

WHEN MY SON JAMIE & I PADDLED A CORACLE AT WELLESBOURNE MILL...

The water mill there was once a good place to visit.

The marks on the door and roof reminded me of an artist’s palette.

The buoy made me think of a hole’s flag on a golf course…